Abstract
IN a paper read before the ninety-fifth meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (Amer. J. Psychiat., 96, 1321; 1940) Dr. Marvin Sukov records his observations on thirty men completing life sentences in the Joliet-Stateville branch of the Illinois State Penitentiary. Their ages on admission ranged between 16 and 49, and their ages on examination were between 39 and 73. The study was conducted by means of a questionary in which each inmate was individually interviewed for a period averaging 1¼ hours. Dr. Sukov's conclusions were as follows: (1) Imprisonment was accompanied by progressive social severance, shown by progressive diminution in visits and correspondence in every case. (2) The patients' basic interests with regard to religion, crime and intellectual sphere were little modified by years of imprisonment. None expressed a reduction in alertness except those advanced in age, who attributed it to that cause. (3) Twenty-five who admitted their guilt stated that they had deserved punishment but that their punishment was too severe. (4) While all had a desire for freedom, many had become resigned to life imprisonment and without help would probably be unable to make an extramural adjustment. (5) Nearly all after many years imprisonment showed no antagonism to society, but none could point to a single individual as a friend.
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The Long-term Prisoner. Nature 146, 229 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146229a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146229a0